It was a hoard like you just dealt with that got me back into bikes a couple of years ago. I cleaned out 15 loads of old bikes from a place about 20 miles away from home. The guy had bikes and parts strewn all through his house, garage, and four sheds. He saved everything, but only about 1/3 of it was worth anything at all, the rest was junk at best. He had everything packed in unmarked boxes, or boxes marked with some illegible code that only he understood. I borrowed a 26ft straight truck, me and a buddy moved box after box till the truck was filled, we made four trips each weekend till we were done. It filled my garage, my car trailer, half my basement, my attic and two truck bodies I bought in the back yard. My only investment was time and fuel, but the truck burned about $500 in fuel by the time we were done. I had hoped that the whole bikes, those he had gone through and was trying to sell himself might make a few dollars back but it turns out that used bikes don't sell, I couldn't get $25 for a complete working bike. If it wasn't carbon fiber or 80 years old no one had any interest. I tried CL and FB. There were a few bikes in the lot i wanted for myself, and I ended up keeping four clean English three speeds all in 23" frame sizes, and four road bikes, plus some spare parts and a couple boxes of tires and tubes. The rest was of little interest to me.
After two years of nothing selling I started parting out the bikes, selling off the bits that would sell, and trashing the rest. I had 30 pair of 27" gumwall tires, the local bike shop was getting $45/pr, I listed them for $10/pr and got no replies, just $2 offers. The only whole bikes that sold were the low end department store models. When I listed those, I got dozens of emails and the bikes were gone quick., When I listed a top quality brand like Raleigh or Motobecane, I got nothing but lowball offers and scammers. The guy had cases of new alloy road bike rims, Weinmann, Araya, Rigida, etc, but they went unsold for a month on fleabay.
I ended saving a few and junking the rest. I got to the point where I felt that if someone didn't feel it was worth $25, plus shipping, it wasn't worth my time to list pack and ship it. I was spending hours every week running around trying to find boxes to ship in and spending money on fuel doing so. After eBay fees, I was losing money. I should have pulled out the few items I wanted to keep and hauled the rest right to the junkyard I'd have been ahead of the game in the end.
After two years of nothing selling I started parting out the bikes, selling off the bits that would sell, and trashing the rest. I had 30 pair of 27" gumwall tires, the local bike shop was getting $45/pr, I listed them for $10/pr and got no replies, just $2 offers. The only whole bikes that sold were the low end department store models. When I listed those, I got dozens of emails and the bikes were gone quick., When I listed a top quality brand like Raleigh or Motobecane, I got nothing but lowball offers and scammers. The guy had cases of new alloy road bike rims, Weinmann, Araya, Rigida, etc, but they went unsold for a month on fleabay.
I ended saving a few and junking the rest. I got to the point where I felt that if someone didn't feel it was worth $25, plus shipping, it wasn't worth my time to list pack and ship it. I was spending hours every week running around trying to find boxes to ship in and spending money on fuel doing so. After eBay fees, I was losing money. I should have pulled out the few items I wanted to keep and hauled the rest right to the junkyard I'd have been ahead of the game in the end.